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Friday, March 11, 2011

Plushy Photo Lightbox!

Hello there. Today I thought I'd share a little bit about my process--my process for taking photographs of my plushies, that is. I use the Kodak EasyShare M530 to take my plushy photos for this blog. It is inexpensive (around $100), and it is easy to use (after a little practice)! Whew! What a relief! :-)

But the other gadget I use for taking photos, at least photos of my plushies, is the photo lightbox that my loving hubby put together for me from scraps and other items we had around the house. Ta-da!

The tripod that we got at a garage sale (for a song!) is in front of the lightbox. Then the base of the lightbox is an old card table covered with a tablecloth we weren't using. The box is a frame made out of recycled PVC pipe and covered with an old (torn) white fitted bed sheet. Then around the sides and top of the lightbox is a floor stand, again made from recycled PVC pipe.

Clipped to the floor stand are three "brooder" lights (sold at hardware stores) with protective metal screens. Those screens are crucial for keeping the lightbulbs from touching the bed sheet (which could otherwise cause a fire). And if the brooder lights were to fall to the floor while turned on (for some odd reason), the metal screens on the lights would keep the carpet from catching on fire (yikes!). The brooder lights are fitted with GE Reveal lightbulbs, which provide a very natural colored light. All three brooder lights are plugged into a power strip--that way, it only takes one flip of the switch to turn on all three of the lights. Pretty nifty, huh?

One of the things I love about this lightbox is that it is almost completely made from recycled articles we had around the house. That makes for a soft and gentle footprint on planet earth! I would love to hear comments from my readers. Have any of you made a lightbox? If so, what materials did you use to make it? Questions? Please ask! Until next time.... xoxo Jennifer

Brilliant!! I used to use a cardboard box with windows cut out and covered with tissue paper. It was extremely fragile, and I hated using it. Off to find some used pvc pipe in the dumpster...thank you!!

Copyright

I love it when people link to and write about my work. If you'd like to use any of my images or content, please link them back to the source. All images and content copyright Jennifer Rydell of www.plushpussycat.com.